Robinhood alternative ?

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barneythedinosaur

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I want to try out Robinhood for trade, i have no experience and don't want any costs associated with trading when starting out, and with as little as $0 one can start to use it Robinhood, it seems to fit the bill so i don't lose a lot when i lose so i can experiment and see if i could possibly get into this kind of lifestyle to eventually make some money out of it, but Robinhood is not open to south africa from what it looks like ?

Are there any way to still use it or a legitimate South African variant one could perhaps use ?

robinhood.com

Robinhood: 24/5 Commission-Free Stock Trading & Investing

Trade stocks on Robinhood with commission-free investing & advanced trading tools. Access fractional shares, real-time market data, and more. Terms and fees may apply.
robinhood.com robinhood.com
 
Is Degiro available in South Africa?

There is also Trading 212, although they are not taking any signups at the moment.

But your best bet is probably something local like easy equities.

Just remember that when trading stocks/shares, only your capital is at risk. If you trade derivatives, in some cases you could lose more than you put in.
 
any one have an eToro account and how do you prefer to fund it?
I haven't done a "bank transfer" yet, I've only done the "credit card transfer" which is great as its instantaneous.

I'm just wondering about the fees etc and which is the cheapest way to go about it?

thanks
 
Not to be funny but if you are just starting out what is wrong with EasyEquities'a USD account?
 
Thanks for the helpful information, is there any hidden fees associated with EasyEquities, you say i need to open a USD account? Does that mean i need to open a bank account in the USA when signing up and trading ?

This is what i want:
I simply want to use a good honest trading system which will allow me to start real small, like in REAL small, but does not limit as to how much i can "grow" and invest.

So when i mean real small mean for instance use R10 to begin with so i can practice with buying/selling every now and then using a small amount ie R10. If i succeed that is IF......i could broaden my risk and invest more, however like mentioned i am new but i can't sit down and do a 3 year course on stock trading i don't have that privilege, and i don't want to risk losing thousands when starting out, never to come back to try again.

And unfortunately don't have a friend "mentor" that i could try and copy his patterns and learn from it.

So i need to practically practice with small change until hopefully i can spend more time and ultimately do it full time IF all goes well, and if i find that i'm to stupid for this, if it does not go well, then i tried and did fortunately not lose much.
 
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Thanks, you say brokers, are they not the one's that charge commissions and other hidden costs ?

Thats why i wanted to try robin hood because apparently you directly trade with live stock not go through various other middlemen.

Also a virtual trading platform sounds nice, but i want to see what happens in real life with real money.
Using small amounts at a time will minimize risk and build confidence, if i make a profit that is.

If not, i can bury the hat and say i tried this and its time to move on, or i might receive a glimpse of hope which will motivate me to come back the next day.
 
This was a comment on a review of RH 5 years ago:

"I have been using Robinhood for almost two years. I’ll be honest, customer support has been abysmal, however, I have literally saved thousands in fees. My guess is at least $10,000.00. When I started, I had no idea what I was doing, and maybe still don’t, but I trade 50- 80 trades a day, mostly buying on dips and selling portions of stocks (I own almost 200). My Scottrade account (retirement) charges $4.95 a trade and 5.25% Margin-this was negotiated down from $7/trade and 8.25% interest. Much different than free trades and 5% interest.

Robinhood can really save huge amounts in margin and trades if you are trading a few or many times a month.
Example. You have a $25,000 portfolio, using a margin amount of $15,000 and making 5 trades a week-apx 22 a month.
Most companies charge $5-10 a trade. Let’s average at $7. For a $25,000 portfolio, you are looking at 8.25% margin interest.
Thus, per month, you are paying $154 in trade commissions and $123.75 in interest.
As opposed to Robinhood, who is charging you $75 for the interest.
So, with your average brokerage:
$277.75
Robinhood:
$75
You are saving about $202.75 a month or $2,433 over the year. That’s a crapload of money!! It’s almost 10% of the account value

I don’t think Robinhood is going away-they may have started as a novelty but they are only increasing their ability to compete with other brokerages. I’ve seen loads of improvement over the past two years and am really looking forward to a desktop version.
My portfolio has increased 29.65% over the past two years and I guarantee a huge part of that is because I had lower margin rates and free trades.

It has also given me the opportunity to learn on a small scale. As someone who is turning a hobby into a career, I think this is a great platform, for both novice and expert investors."

Also i think they give you free trades as well.
 
RH does not offer "free" trades. They sell the order flow to various parties, and the result is a worse order fill than using a proper broker. If the product is free, you are the product.
 
barneythedinosaur said:
Thanks, you say brokers, are they not the one's that charge commissions and other hidden costs ?

Thats why i wanted to try robin hood because apparently you directly trade with live stock not go through various other middlemen.

Also a virtual trading platform sounds nice, but i want to see what happens in real life with real money.
Using small amounts at a time will minimize risk and build confidence, if i make a profit that is.

If not, i can bury the hat and say i tried this and its time to move on, or i might receive a glimpse of hope which will motivate me to come back the next day.
Click to expand...

TDAmeritrade also has commission free trading (for US stocks, anyway)

Interactive Brokers have the best virtual trading environment.
 
JayM said:
RH does not offer "free" trades. They sell the order flow to various parties, and the result is a worse order fill than using a proper broker. If the product is free, you are the product.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is how I understand it as well.
 
barneythedinosaur said:
ok so where can start to trade without any hidden costs and with a minimal of R 0
Click to expand...
I know I'm late to the conversation - but to answer you more directly you are asking for something that doesn't exist in South Africa. You are also approaching from the wrong angle; don't try and trade with R10, that will achieve nothing. There are no commision free services in SA. Rather start with a demo account and build your confidence that way - there is no difference to using this and "real" money as the fees and executions will be the same. Being completely inexperienced I would advise against trying to trade like you immediately want to, rather try and buy some shares and hold them (i.e. investing). For this I'd recommend Easy Equities as well for a few reasons.
 
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